Delve has been kicking around the older formats pretty much since day one- Tombstalker was an old favorite in some decks, and Treasure Cruise was infamously too good for Legacy! Even now, there’s still Delving going around in Legacy and in Modern- and more importantly for today, several of those cards are Instants and Sorceries. What that means is that you might be throwing a Snapcaster Mage down in the same deck as a Murderous Cut or a Dig Through Time. But is that a combo, or a nonbo? As some of you may remember, Flashback is an alternate cost. You can’t pay more than one alternate cost- that’s why Snapcaster + Force of Will isn’t very useful, for example. Delve, however, is not a cost- it’s a method of payment! When you use Snapcaster to give Flashback to your Delve spell, it’ll get a Flashback cost equal to the mana cost (Let’s say 4B for Murderous Cut). You flash the spell back, and when you get around to paying for it, Delve is still 100% an option you can take. So, feel free to leave up 1UB if you have a full graveyard- that Cut will be as cheap and murderous in the graveyard as it was in your hand.

Today’s Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez